Schooled
by jareaufan
Summary: A strange series of murders, all connected to the local high school, plague a Michigan town. The BAU accepts the case, and sends Elle and new team member Sarah Lombardi undercover. Some chapters may be rated M in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T. Some chapters might be R in the future. I WILL warn when they are by changing the rating in this top section.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

_**Johnsonfield, Michigan. 8:30 PM.**_

A hand reached into a desk drawer, darkness surrounded it before a light snapped on, taking away the absence of light and illuminating the empty classroom.

"What're you doing here? It's past school hours." A lowly janitor asked instinctively, also trying to sound tougher than he most likely was – just in case his current situation took a threatening turn. The person he was talking to then seemed to register within his mind, because he rectified his tone almost instantly. "Mr. Bower. You forgot something?"

"Yeah Tom. The papers I have to grade tonight. I'll see you tomorrow, I have lunch moderation duty." The lanky red-haired bespectacled man replied, in a hurry to get back home.

The janitor laughed, "Miss Bedford left her stuff last week," he turned back to leave, "see you Mr. Bower."

Bower grabbed a plastic multi-section folder then tidied up a bit before leaving. Shutting up his classroom, he then headed to his car – the lone one in the section of parking lot. Producing a sudden sharp whistle as it was swung through the air, a crowbar connected with the back of his knees and he crumpled to the ground. The attacker hit him again across the face before taking his keys and unlocking the car – shoving the unconscious teacher in the backseat. The attacker then shut the door, got into the driver's seat and shut that door before starting the car and driving away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

_"Anything you're good at contributes to happiness."_ - Bertrand Russell

_**FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. Quantico, Virginia. The Next Day. 10:30 AM.**_

Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner sat at his desk finishing a file when he instinctively looked up at the clock. He shook his head then picked up his desk phone. A knock at his office door however, forced him to put it back down. "Come in." He beckoned to the unseen person.

The door opened to reveal a petite brunette female agent around twenty-five years old. Her ID badge hung from a lanyard around her neck, resting on the sky blue blouse she wore. Her gun was in a holster attached to the belt around her black pants, a spare cartridge holder on the opposite side of that – and a pair of handcuffs attached below the small of her back. "Agent Hotchner?"

"Yes?" He asked, conveying a sense of courtesy to his office guest.

The female agent then shut the door. "Agent Sarah Lombardi. I have an appointment with you?"

"You had an appointment fifteen minutes ago Agent. Sit." Hotch responded with a harsher tone, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk.

Sarah shut the door and took a seat, and immediately excused her lateness. "Had to help break up a fight outside the airport, it was taking the TSAs too long to respond." She offered, concluding with "sorry sir."

"Make sure you call next time Lombardi."

"Yes sir." Sarah replied, a bit of an apprehensive expression on her tanned features.

Hotch continued without missing a beat. "You're originally from the New York Field Office correct?"

"Yes, for three years. I graduated two years early from college."

"You were put ahead in school?" He inquired, his voice pitching a bit in accordance.

Sarah shook her head. "Just took some summer college courses in high school, along with AP courses my junior and senior years. I learn quickly, but I'm no genius."

Hotch nodded, "I assume you know that this is just a post-hire interview to just see your mannerisms?"

"I figured sir." Sarah replied, relieved.

Hotch smiled, an obviously rare occurrence. "Agent Lombardi, my team calls me Hotch."

Sarah smiled, the casual remark putting her at ease. "Call me Sarah then if you want to. Thank you so much for this."

Hotch got up and shook Sarah's hand. "The majority of the team should be in the bullpen if you want to go get acquainted."

"Sounds good." Sarah replied, soon thereafter exiting the office after Hotch.

They headed across the raised walkway, then down the stairs and into the bullpen to a particular cluster of desks. The three agents occupying the desks didn't notice them arrive at first, but then were soon snapped out of their intensity.

"Team, this is Supervisory Special Agent Sarah Lombardi. She'll be joining the BAU starting today as part of our initiative to expand the main team." Hotch offered.

A muscular African-American man stood up to shake Sarah's hand. "So you're the one they picked to fill out our ranks? I'm Derek Morgan." He then flashed a small-but-brilliant welcoming smile.

"Elle Greenaway," offered an athletic tan-skinned woman after she set down a pen she was attempting to fix.

A lanky pale-skinned man stood up next after nervously adjusting his tie. "Dr. Spencer Reid. Nice to meet you."

"I'll leave you all alone now to get acquainted, I have to go prep a case." Hotch added before heading off towards the conference room.

Elle then spoke up, gesturing to the desk across from her own. "Your plate is on that desk, and someone unpacked boxes into the drawers earlier – so I guess we're desk partners."

The team then all sat down at their respective desks, Sarah also took the opportunity to quickly unpack some of the desk drawers and personalize her desktop. Morgan looked over at her while he played with a stress reliever ball, tossing it up in the air and from hand-to-hand before settling on just squeezing it.

"So where'd you transfer from Lombardi? Or are you a rare straight-to-BAU like Reid here?" Morgan asked, breaking the ice before tossing the stress reliever to Reid, who fumbled before he managed to actually catch it.

"Sarah." She corrected with a smile as she withdrew a picture of a man in an NYPD uniform and placed it on her desktop near the phone and pencil sharpener.

"Alright then Sarah." Morgan returned the smile. "Where'd you transfer from?"

"I was at the D.C. Headquarters for a year before I got accepted here; but I spent the majority of my career in the Violent Crimes Division on a Response Squad at the New York Field Office. I was there for three years, started when I was twenty." Sarah informed Morgan, concluding with a smart smile.

"See Reid? You aren't the only genius in the Unit." Elle quipped.

"Not a genius." Sarah interjected. "Just determined. I took summer classes my junior and senior years of high school, then also some AP courses. The FBI looked at my transcripts and offered me enrollment into the Academy despite my age."

"I'd qualify that as relative genius Sarah. Because just the ability to enter into those courses and pass with the credits requires a great amount of knowledge and academic prowess." Reid offered with a small smile.

"Thanks Reid." Sarah replied.

"So did you grow up in New York, or just work there?" Elle asked. "I grew up in Brooklyn myself."

"I lived there with my Dad since I was six; after Mom died. More in the Manhattan area near the Fourteenth Precinct, because Dad was a patrol officer there. He's a Captain now."

Elle nodded. "My dad died when I was little, he was in the NYPD too."

"He must have been a good man." Sarah replied, offering Elle a small sympathetic smile, which was returned.

A balding man in his fifties then interrupted the conversation as he walked across the platform walkway towards the conference room. "Hotch wants us all in the conference room now. J.J.'s got a case for us."

As they all ascended the stairs towards the conference room, Sarah looked to Morgan. "Is that Gideon?"

"The one and only." He replied with a chuckle as he held the door for everyone to enter.

After everyone had entered, Morgan closed the door and took a seat between Sarah and Elle, Reid took the seat on the other side of Sarah, with Hotch taking the one next to Elle, and Gideon next to Reid. A blonde agent, J.J., took the forefront – standing near the flat screen monitor with a remote – as Hotch passed around copies of the casefile.

"Gene Bower was murdered yesterday in Johnsonfield, Michigan." J.J. said, bringing a DMV photo of a smiling bespectacled red-headed man up on the screen with a click of the remote. She then clicked the remote again, and a photo of a scorched car with a badly burned body in the driver's seat appeared on the right next to the DMV photo. "His body was identified by a ring he wore and traces of DNA."

"The lead detective on the case believes it's connected to where he worked." Hotch offered.

"Herbert P. O'Dell High School. Another recent case involved a retired teacher, Angela Robards. She was found at the bottom of her stairs with a broken neck." J.J. continued.

Elle glanced at her casefile. "It says here that Robards retired nearly five years ago. Why'd the detective make the connection?"

"Robards was a teacher-mentor to Bower when he started at the school." J.J. informed upon glancing at her notes.

"The deaths aren't similar." Sarah thought out-loud, crinkling her brow in concentration as she read through the file. Upon finishing, she looked up at J.J. "Did they rule out accidental death with Robards?"

"The M.E. confirmed that the type of fracture sustained was unlikely to be caused by a fall." J.J. replied, reading through her initial report from local P.D.

"They're related. I don't doubt that. It's a classic M.O. The first to throw us off, make it look like an accident. The second is where the UnSub breaks out of their shell. The murder makes them feel good and they escalate into greater acts, but it's messy. The next one will be swift, more calculated, and thought-out. A perfect triad so to speak. So it will more than likely take some time for the UnSub to strike again." Gideon interjected. "We need to play this softly, send someone into the school undercover."

"The principal is offering counseling to those who feel affected by Bower's death. The community still believes Robards was a tragic accident, and I've instructed the Detective on the case to keep reporting it as such." J.J. added.

"The perfect time to test the waters. See genuine reactions first-hand. Lombardi, you ever go undercover?" Gideon continued.

Sarah shook her head, excited-but-apprehensive. "But to be honest sir, I just officially joined this unit less than an hour ago. Wouldn't it be better if I did background work to start off with?"

"We could send Reid, but judging from what I observed in the bullpen, you integrate well. Plus I reviewed your record when we selected you for this position." Gideon countered.

"Elle, you could go in as backup, an older sister that she lives with. But we're not forcing either of you to do anything." Hotch offered, casting a glance at Gideon.

"I'll do it." Sarah responded after taking a short time to think the situation over.

"Well then I've got your back." Elle added.

"Alright, I'll give you two some time to talk and go home to pack more. Wheels up in five," Hotch concluded before he and Gideon left the room.

Morgan, Reid, Sarah, and Elle stayed behind to gather up their files.

"Nice going Lombardi, snagging undercover on your first day." Morgan congratulated, genuinely happy for his fellow agent.

"I can't believe I'm going back to high school. I thought I left all that behind years ago." Sarah replied in disbelief. "It was kind of rough."

"Don't worry about it." Morgan offered, placing a hand on Sarah's shoulder before leaving the room with Reid.

"Sisters?" Elle asked with a slightly raised brow, turning to Sarah once they finished gathering their files.

"I guess so." Sarah replied with an agreeing smile before they left to go pack and compare ideas.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

**Author's Note: Thank you to all of those who have reviewed, favorited, and placed this on story alert. Hopefully you all will still enjoy the future chapters!**

On the jet, Gideon and Reid played chess at the table while Morgan sat in a single seat and listened to his iPod while reading a book. Hotch sat in another single seat while he went over the case file. Sarah sat on one of the couch seats with Elle on one of the singles against the adjacent wall.

"Agent Lombardi? I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. Jennifer Jareau, media and local law enforcement liaison." The blonde agent from earlier offered her hand. "But everyone just calls me J.J."

"Just call me Sarah." Sarah replied, shaking J.J.'s hand.

Elle laughed at the introductions, her eyebrows raised in personal amusement. "She just gave me a walk-and-talk, flew by and handed me a stack of files."

Sarah and J.J. smiled, although the latter seemed much less amused.

"So you handle the cops and media while we profile?" Sarah asked, placing her casefile down on the empty seat on her left.

"Pretty much." J.J. replied. "It's my specialty, like behavioral analysis is yours."

"We didn't have one of you on my team in New York. That just fell to our team leader."

"Well, good luck with the undercover job." J.J. responded, glancing at her watch. "The local FBI office is letting us use one of their empty properties, and it's being furnished as we speak, and I have to go call and check up on everything." The blonde then retrieved her cell phone from her belt. "See you." She finished, heading towards the private area.

"So anyway, I've never had a sister, this will be new to me." Elle offered as she flipped through the casefile.

Sara smiled. "I didn't have any either. One brother, we were pretty close after Mom died."

"Three older brothers myself, close, then pain in the you-know-where."

"Yeah, my brother Marcos tended to flirt with my female friends." Sarah replied. "I think he's still dating one of them."

"Ouch." Elle offered through a smile that made it's way into a small chuckle. "Talk about sibling code?"

**-----------**

"Detective Lewis?" J.J. asked as she as well as the rest of the team approached a tall dark-haired man.

"Yes m'am. You must be the FBI team." The detective replied with a friendly grin.

"Jennifer Jareau, we spoke on the phone." J.J. offered before stepping back to introduce the rest of the team. "This is SSA Aaron Hotchner, our Unit Chief. Senior SSA Jason Gideon, and SSAs Morgan, Dr. Reid, Greenaway, and Lombardi."

"We set up our conference room for you all to work out of, and we made sure to keep media on the down-low like you said Agent Jareau." Detective Lewis replied, leading the team to the conference room.

However, Hotch and Gideon stayed outside of it as the rest of the team entered and settled in. "Detective. May we speak to you for a moment in private?" Hotch asked, stopping Lewis from entering the conference room.

"Yeah, sure." He replied, looking around the precinct building. "The Captain's out today. We can use his office."

As soon as they entered and were in the clear, Hotch shut the office door behind them. "I understand you made the connection between Robards and Bower?"

Lewis stepped back a bit from the aura of Hotch's pressuring demeanor. "Yeah, I thought it was too much of a coincidence. Decided to call you all in because it just seemed to be getting worse. One of the officers took a seminar at Quantico on homicidal evolution theories and his input confirmed my belief of the connection."

"Good, good. After we were briefed on the case, we figured that it would be beneficial to send someone in undercover at the High School. We didn't want to tell you until the exact plans were coordinated with the nearest FBI office – they're lending us a house," Gideon replied.

Detective Lewis nodded. "As long as we catch this bastard, I have no problem with it. This town is known for its relatively low crime-rate, and a serial killer running around won't exactly help us retain that notion. I can call ahead to the principal at O'Dell, say I'm referring some new residents. It'll get your Agents in quicker."

"Thank you Detective." Gideon finished with a courteous handshake.

"No problem, I'll get right on it."

Hotch, Gideon, and Lewis then left the office to go discuss a preliminary profile with the rest of the team.

"The UnSub wasted no time with Bower's death, definitely planned it beforehand. The burn patterns show that they wanted the car to burn, but not explode too soon. It's pure sadism, he most likely watched the flames rise." Sarah offered Hotch, Gideon, and Detective Lewis. "I saw similar burn patterns on a case my team helped with in New York. A gang member wanted a snitch to go down."

"All the evidence suggests a male committed the murders due to the strength and sheer brutality, calculations and type of homicidal evolution." Reid continued.

"That narrows it down to 55% of the student body and 10% of the staff on gender alone." Morgan added. "But the fact that the person drove Bower's car for a distance suggests that the UnSub has a driver's license, has taken the driver's ed course, or has experience driving a vehicle of some sort."

"I've got the undercover bios drawn up." Elle stated. "Most of it Sarah and I worked on in the jet." She handed copies to Gideon, Hotch and Detective Lewis.

"This is good stuff." Detective Lewis complimented.

"We drew some ideas from textbook examples, and filled the rest in afterwards to create the identities," Elle informed.

Detective Lewis nodded then turned to Hotch and Gideon. "I'm going to go make that call to the principal at O'Dell. I'll let you all tell him the real purpose of the meeting once you go in there."

"Sounds good. We should have a preliminary profile ready for your patrol by the time you're done." Hotch answered before the man got up and left.

Fifteen Minutes Later

"Hey. Gather around, we've got a profile for you." Detective Lewis exclaimed, gesturing towards the conference room where the corkboard and whiteboard were now mostly full of notes and photos. The various officers and secondary detectives followed his lead and took various positions around the room.

"The person we're looking for is a white male, late teens to mid-forties," Morgan started.

"The UnSub, or Unknown Subject, is definitely connected to the school, so that narrows down the suspect pool significantly." Reid continued. "But he'll have hidden his true motives to the point of seeming normal, blending in fairly well. It's a type of border-line personality disorder, and usually manifests itself in cases where the UnSub believes the outcome is greater than possible consequences."

"Basically, this UnSub will not go down without a fight because he believes what he's doing is perfectly fine," Hotch clarified.

"We're taking this one slower. Agents Lombardi and Greenaway are being sent in undercover." Sarah raised her hand a bit as an introductory gesture as Gideon informed the officers.

"I'm going in as a student, and Agent Greenaway will be acting as a secondary in case backup is needed. She will also act as the liaison between ourselves and the team, and will report back information as I collect it."

"And we're stressing that you not make this aspect of the investigation public, to anyone, especially the media. Once someone finds out, the theory spreads and the UnSub will either act more quickly, or weasel his way out of this all together and evade the case," J.J. stressed, handing one of the patrol officers a stack of copies of the profile to pass around the room. "If anyone believes they have a lead, report it directly to one of my team members or Detective Lewis. Do not approach any suspects, as it could ruin the case at this point, we will let you know when it is safe to do so. For now we are just here helping with the Bower case as far as anyone outside this precinct knows."


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

**Author's Note: And, the "mission" starts!**

"Sarah and Elle Payton. Mother is Puerto Rican, met our father when he was in the Army and stationed in San Juan. They married a year later and moved to New York, and had you a year later. Had me fourteen years after that. They died four years ago in a car crash, and I've lived with you since. You recently got a job transfer to a bank in a nearby town, and we decided to move here because of the small-town feel." Sarah then closed the folder containing the cover bios as she and Elle pulled into the school's parking lot. "Damn, that was good. Got a bit depressing towards the middle."

Elle smiled as she parked the car. "It's a talent."

Sarah then took off her holstered sidearm and spare ammo and placed it in the glovebox. Elle then locked it, and put her own gun in her purse before pointing at Sarah's shirt.

"Unbutton it."

"You want me to what?" Sarah asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

"You're seventeen again. Show a little less professionalism." Elle responded, a slight smile crossing her lips.

"Ah. You'd be surprised how professional I am when off-duty." Sarah replied, climbing into the backseat of the car. "Hold on a second." She then pulled an outfit out of her go-bag, ducked down and began to undress.

"Sarah, seriously?" Elle sounded, turning away. "In a high school parking lot?"

"You want me to look less FBI." Sarah retorted, getting up and revealing a brown tanktop, a brown leather fashion belt, dark-wash boot cut Ruehl jeans, and a lightweight plaid scarf. She then slipped her badge/credentials into her front pocket, and fixed her pant leg to conceal her Glock 27 backup pistol. "High school principal forced me to be in the school play one year, helped with the quick change thing."

"Forced you?" Elle asked, getting out of the car.

"It involved a can of spraypaint and the word 'bitchface' on her office door." Sarah replied as they headed towards the front door of the school building, which she held open for Elle before entering herself.

"I'm sensing some hostility there." Elle replied with a small laugh as she entered and held open the main office door for Sarah before she made her own way to the secretary's desk.

"Can I help you m'am?" The older woman asked Elle after excusing herself from a telephone call.

"I'm here to register my sister." Elle replied, gesturing to Sarah who was curiously going through a yearbook that was on a table near a set of visitors' waiting-chairs.

"Remind me again why we couldn't stay back home." Sarah added for emphasis as she glanced through a few more pages, then set the yearbook back down and joined Elle at the front desk.

The secretary perked up at the chance for her to be nosy. "You just moved here?"

"From New York City, I got a job transfer." Elle smiled as she signed a visitors' sheet on a clipboard that was passed to her. "The principal should be expecting us. I ran into Detective Lewis yesterday while getting coffee, he said he could get us an appointment to get Sarah in quicker."

"Mark is nice man, always contributes to the career fair." The secretary commented with an appreciative smile before picking up her phone and calling an extension. "Don. Mark's referral is here." She then hung up and gestured to the door marked 'Principal.' "He's expecting you."

"Thanks." Elle offered before heading into the office with Sarah close behind.

"It's always nice to have prospective new students." The principal greeted as Elle shut the door, he then gestured to two chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat."

Sarah took a seat, and then looked back at Elle, who eventually took the other seat in front of the man's moderately cluttered desk. "So what brings you to O'Dell?" He asked, leaning back a bit in his desk chair.

"Actually sir." Elle started, she and Sarah then flashed their credentials – causing the principal to quickly upright himself again. "We're FBI." She finished as they put away their credentials.

"We're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit, and are here working a possible connection between the deaths of Angela Robards and Gene Bower." Sarah informed the man, who was still in a minor state of shock.

"So you're telling me Angela and Gene's deaths were related?"

"Yes, sir. Local P.D. figured a connection was likely, and upon arrival here, our team concluded so." Sarah replied.

"Our bosses are sending us in undercover, because there is a definite connection between both cases, and this school." Elle added.

"So Mark knows about this?"

"Yes. He's the one who called our team to come help." Elle clarified. "It's usually customary to personally inform the highest official within the school before sending any Agent in."

"Which would be me." Sarah concluded for the man's benefit.

"I don't have a say in this, do I?" The principal asked, making somewhat of a joke as the reality of what was transpiring set-in. Nothing ever happened in his hometown, especially the arrival of two FBI Agents going undercover to investigate murders.

"It's crucial to the investigation – but you can opt-out." Elle honestly offered.

The principal shook his head before he got up and fished some papers out of a nearby filing cabinet. He then sat back down and handed them to Elle, along with a pen. "This'll take some getting used to." He said, more to calm his own mind. "Those are the registration forms. Just fill them out accordingly, and I'll have everything set up for you to start tomorrow."

Elle filled out the papers as Sarah inconspicuously studied the man. "You need to understand that this has to stay between you, Detective Lewis, our team, and us. Especially, what we told you about the connection and our theory, and even more importantly – our identities as FBI Agents." Sarah stated, studying the principal's eyes.

The older man nodded, completely sure – yet a tad bit scared regarding Sarah's statement. "I completely understand. Gene and Angela were my friends, and fantastic assets to our staff here. If they were murdered, I want the person to pay just as much as you want to catch them."


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

**Author's Note: Okay. So the end of the story has been written, and I promise you all that it's totally awesome. But I can also promise you that it will be a good no-less-than seven chapters before it gets there. ****This chapter also may be short, but the next one is long enough to completely make up for it!**

After setting up "Sarah Payton's" student files with the help of the principal, Elle and Sarah exited the main office after a quick goodbye to the secretary. The hallway was partially filled with students making their way to and from class at this point, causing Sarah to bump shoulders with a boy wearing a letter jacket.

"Sorry." He offered, stopping in his tracks and turning to apologize.

Sarah stopped as well, and she immediately noticed the boy's dark hair and contrasting blue eyes. She subsequently hurried Elle along, like any teenager would do to their guardian in her current situation. "It's not a problem."

The boy, who was a good foot taller than Sarah smiled. "I'm Matt Dexter." He extended his hand.

Sarah shook his hand, offering up a smile. "Sarah Payton. I just moved here from New York."

"It's a long way from New York," Matt laughed.

Sarah nodded. "My sister got a job transfer, you know how that goes."

"Yeah." Matt replied, just to ease along the conversation. "So you starting here tomorrow?" He asked, obviously attracted to Sarah.

Sarah nodded, showing him a schedule printout.

"We have the same first and fourth period classes." Matt commented before handing back the schedule. The warning bell then sounded, and he looked up at a nearby clock.

Sarah waved him on. "Go, I wouldn't want to make you late."

Matt gave Sarah a small smile. "It was nice meeting you."

They then parted ways, Sarah headed out the front door and across the parking lot. When she got into the front passenger seat of the car, Elle was waiting for her with a smile. Sarah tried to ignore it until they stopped for the stop sign at the school's exit.

"No. Oh god no!" Sarah exclaimed. "It's illegal. He's seventeen and I'm twenty-five. Plus he's totally not my type!"

Elle shook her head in disbelief. "You must be one good actress then."

"I told you. Forced into school plays and drama club, and are you forgetting I'm a profiler like you? One big plus to the whole charade!"

"Sure. Whatever you say."


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

**Author's Note: Please review if you read. Anonymous, signed, it doesn't really matter. Also, think of some cute "shipper names" for the _possible _pairings mentioned above and put them in a review. If I choose your suggestion, then I'll reply to the review and name a character after you or something.  
**

After arriving and parking the car in the crash-pad's garage, Sarah retrieved her sidearm from the glovebox as Elle pushed the close button on the garage remote. They then retrieved their ready bags and other belongings before entering the house.

"This place is homey." Sarah sounded as they headed down the hallway to the bedrooms.

The first door they opened happened to be the Master bedroom, or Elle's room. Elle started to unpack her things as Sarah moved on to the next bedroom, or her room.

"Wow." She commented upon opening the door and seeing how the local FBI office had decorated the place. She then got to work unpacking her belongings.

Elle stepped into the room, she laughed. "Exactly what I was expecting. You're a real rebel Sarah Payton."

"That's what they called me in High School after Tom Gregory's party sophomore year." She smiled, recalling the memory.

"You're sayin'!" Elle exclaimed.

Sarah nodded. "Not one of my prouder moments. Let's just say some of Dad's cop buddies had to break up the party, and there were a few new rules around the home after that."

"Well, we all had 'em."

"Those wacky teenage years - really got the best of us all, didn't they?" Sarah replied as she took a laptop out of her bag and put it on the desk. "Anyway, I saw something in that yearbook that had me thinking."

"What?" Elle looked over Sarah shoulder as she sat down at the desk and booted up the computer.

"We have direct-line capabilities with the tech analyst, right?" Sarah asked, bringing up a video chat program.

"Garcia? Yeah, hold on." Elle responded, leaning over Sarah and taking control of the keyboard. She typed in Garcia's direct-link information causing a window to pop up.

In the window, a surprised Garcia jumped back a bit. "Elle, I told you to call before we meet like this."

"Sorry Garcia. We just need your help with something."

Garcia turned her focus to Sarah. "You must be the newbie? Why haven't we been introduced?"

"Our boss thrust me into this gig practically as soon as I got to the office." Sarah replied with a smile, amused at the analyst's speaking style and quirky clothing. "I'm Sarah Lombardi."

"Oh. I know your name honey. I'm the Goddess of All Things Tech-Related otherwise known as Penelope Garcia." Garcia offered. "Plus I totally pulled up as much info on you as I could once the rumor-mill said we were getting a new team member."

"So anyway." Sarah started, hurrying that part of the conversation along, and eliciting a bit of suspicion from Elle. "Is it possible to access files from the high school? Like class schedules, records and pictures?"

"I can get you anything. I'll have it to your email in a matter of seconds. School districts don't exactly have Pentagon-grade security measures on their networks if you get my drift."

"Thanks Garcia." Sarah replied.

Garcia nodded. "Any time." She responded before closing the chat window.

Then surely enough, after a couple of minutes a link from Garcia popped up in Sarah's email inbox. She clicked on it and navigated to a page showing teacher evaluations then scrolled down and clicked on Gene Bower's. Elle watched as Sarah then brought up the latest victim's most recent scores.

"I thought of this while looking at a collage of pictures from his class. We know the school loved him, but what about his actual evaluations? Everything has layers."

"He was being considered for a promotion to head up the English Department. This man has no layers, at least within the school. He's solid." Elle offered after scanning the computer screen. "It'll take forever to comb through everything and cross reference it to see if we can get a lead." She continued as Sarah clicked around to reveal hundreds upon hundreds, maybe even thousands of files within the school's network.

"We'll have to take it bit-by-bit." Sarah replied, shutting the window, then the laptop. "Put the profile together by adding pieces to what we already have." She then got up from her desk, retrieving her copy of the casefile from her ready bag. "It's just that..." She started as she flipped through it and withdrew the photos from the Bower crime scene. "This..." She spread the photos out on the bed. "Is bothering me."

"There's planning, a definite method to the madness, but something just doesn't add up. I first saw it back on the jet, but I chalked it up to wishful thinking. Then I saw it again as we readied the initial profile."

"But you didn't mention it?" Elle asked, a bit critical.

"Would you mention something you thought wasn't really there?" Sarah responded, picking up one of the photos that showed the scene as a whole.

Elle shook her head as Sarah handed her the photo. "I guess not."

"Just look at that. A fairly normal crime-scene, right? Swift, everything you'd expect from this kind of killer's evolution patterns. But look at where the seatbelts are."

"He buckled up the body?" Elle sounded, more for her own questioning mind.

Sarah nodded, taking the photo from Elle and gathering the casefile back up before putting it in a desk drawer. "Now you see why I was skeptical."

Elle nodded her head. "Completely," she replied as they left the room together,

Sarah then grabbed the television remote off the living room's coffee table, flopped down onto the couch and turned on the television. Elle sat down in an armchair. After a minute of flipping through the channel guide, Sarah settled on an old ER rerun and they watched it for about another minute before Sarah turned her focus towards Elle and began to smile in satisfaction.

"You're thinking about it too, aren't you?" Sarah asked.

"You breaking the moratorium on inter-team profiling?"

"No, I just have a habit of making people uncomfortable. Therefore causing an immediate thought process of what the hell they did wrong." Sarah replied simply, turning back to the television.

"You're profiling me."

"Yes. I'm profiling you."

"Mind telling me what you found out?"

"You're thinking about the secretary. She's in that office all day, sees people coming and going, and has the attitude and mannerisms suggesting that she knows an awful lot more than she should."

"Pretty much. But she could just be a typical nosy secretary."

"Or she could know something that we need."


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: Schooled**

**Author: jareaufan**

**Fandom: Criminal Minds**

**Pairing: Elle/Sarah friendship, Reid/Sarah friendship. One of the two could evolve into actual pairings.**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, this is just a work of fiction for fan entertainment. All similarities to actual people and places are pure coincidence. **

**Author's Note: Please review if you read. Anonymous, or signed.**

"Can I back out now, or am I too far into this?" Sarah asked Elle as they pulled up out front of the school for her first day officially undercover. She grabbed Elle's to-go cup of coffee out of the cupholder and drank a decent amount.

"Seriously?" Elle asked, handing the cup back to her colleague with a quick look of disdain.

"I'm just messing with you. See, my acting is just that good." Sarah grabbed her backpack and opened the car door. "Pick me up around four. I'm thinking of going out for the cross country team."

Elle just shook her head. "I'm picking you up at dismissal."

"Gotcha _hermana_." Sarah confirmed as she completely exited the car and shut the door.

Elle rolled down the window. "Seriously. Two thirty-five. We've got no say in it."

"Two effing thirty-five. I've got it Elle! Lighten up!" Sarah laughed then headed off to the school's entrance.

Once inside, Sarah pulled her class schedule out of her backpack. After unfolding the crumpled-up mess, she didn't even manage to read the text before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned towards the person. "Matt?"

"Yeah." Matt smiled. "We have the same first period if I remember correctly. I noticed you looking at the schedule, and figured I'd walk with you. Show you the ropes and stuff."

Sarah nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"It's just right up these stairs. Honors Chemistry. Mr. Edmonds is a bit boring when he gets into lecture-mode, but he's pretty cool anyway." Matt offered as they headed up the stairs, then into the classroom. They took seats next to each other at one of the lab tables. "So any interesting New York stories you can tell me? I've never actually been there before."

"I used to work at a movie theater in the projector room. I got lost on the Subway the first time my dad let me take it by myself. He had to go pick me up miles away from where I was supposed to be."

"I've always wanted to take the Subway. It seems awesome."

"It's just an underground train, lots of different people, sometimes you get a drunk or homeless one. If you're lucky, they're rolled into the same package." Sarah joked, eliciting a laugh from Matt.

**Two hours later.**

Sarah handed the clerk at the lunchroom register a five-dollar bill for her lunch, and pocketed the change as she headed out to the small quad the school had set up just outside the lunchroom. She noticed a group of so-called "popular girls" sitting at a table as she walked by, but didn't make note of them until one of them called out to her.

_"__¡Oye, ven acá! _Hey you, get over here!"

Sarah turned towards them and one of the girls – the leader of the small group – waved to her, so she made her way over. The girl's friends held in their laughter.

"Is there a problem..?" Sarah asked the girl, trying to extinguish the situation before it had a chance to gather the flames that were obviously going to happen.

"Kayla Sanchez. The problem is that you've been hitting on my boyfriend Matt all day. Have anything to say for yourself?"

"Listen, Kayla. I haven't been hitting on Matt. He's just a friend, okay?" Sarah offered, turning away to head back towards the quad.

"Bet she's gay then." One of the other girls whispered, eliciting laughs from Kayla and the rest of the group.

Sarah whipped around, but resisted the overwhelming urge to reach into her backpack for her backup pistol and make the girls wish they had never messed with her. She was technically an on-duty FBI Agent and had to maintain her composure as a result, but she was also undercover and had to sell Sarah Payton to the school. Or at least that's what she was telling herself. She turned around and headed back out towards the quad. She was almost down the short hallway when she felt a presence in the empty hallway to her left. "Say it to my face." She said as she walked towards Kayla.

"She...said...you...must...be...gay." Kayla got close to Sarah's face as she repeated the statement, and then slammed the undercover agent into a set of lockers, causing her to drop her lunch tray. She spoke very slowly into her target's ear, as if she was extremely hard of hearing and/or mentally challenged.

"Just because I'm not hitting on your boyfriend, doesn't mean I'm gay _puta_."

"What did you call me?"

"Do..you..need..me..to..repeat..that..for..you?" Sarah mocked as she turned around to face her attacker.

"You did not just talk to me like that!" She managed to land a punch to Sarah's arm, her class ring acting as a metal knuckle of sorts.

Sarah then grabbed Kayla's arm and twisted it behind her back as she slammed the teenager into the lockers. "You don't know me, so stay out of my business, got it bitch? Now say you're sorry."


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to the people who have placed this story as a favorite, alert, and those who have reviewed. It lets me know people actually want to see more of this.**

**This chapter is short, but it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the story. It's full of drama, and rated M for a bit of mature language at the end.**

Elle sat in her rental car, glancing around the campus of Herbert P. O'Dell High School as she waited in for Sarah to be dismissed. She was so busy staring at the main door, that she didn't notice when the undercover Agent in question entered the car and sat down in the front passenger seat. She looked over to see Sarah, buckled in and drinking a bottle of vending machine Snapple.

"Welcome back to the living sister." Sarah quipped, taking a sip of her tea. "I've got loads to report."

Fifteen minutes later, Elle and Sarah sat in the living room of the house, a laptop on the coffee table in front of themselves. Sarah had pulled up the records of Kayla, but nothing worthwhile had been gained from reading over the seventeen year old's information.

"Tell me again why you think Sanchez did it?" Elle asked, turning to Sarah, who had doctored her bruised arm via an icepack kept in place by a wrapped ACE bandage.

"She's a bitch." Sarah replied, then shaking her head in an act of self-amusement. "I dunno, I wanted her to just be an accomplice or something after what she did."

"You're not even going to give me the whole story behind that, are you?" Elle retorted.

Sarah laughed. "All you need to know is I didn't injure her, and that she definitely deserved to be injured…badly."

Elle stifled a laugh. "Screw protocol. I need a damn drink after this. You're just too much Lombardi."

"I like to think so." Sarah replied, following Elle into the kitchen and helping on the search for some liquor.

Two hours later, after exhausting the crashpad's supply of Coors Light (which Elle complained about the entire time she drank it), the two Agents decided to start searching the cabinets for more – their buzzed minds figuring the local FBI office they were borrowing the house from surely planted some more for them to find.

On the fifth cabinet she searched, Sarah spotted something behind a box of Cheerios. "Goldmine!" She held up a half-filled bottle of Belvedere Vodka, and Elle grabbed it out of her hand.

"Not my usual choice, but it'll do." Elle commented.

"It better be good enough. I literally climbed into a dirty cabinet for that. I'm all dusty now." Sarah got up off the floor and dusted herself off. "Now hand me the bottle."

"Um, no?" Elle replied.

"I know way more about bartending than you do, so just give me the bottle Greenaway."

Elle locked her dark eyes with Sarah's blue. "Make me."

Sarah just laughed, causing Elle to cock an eyebrow in amusement. Once she was sure Elle was distracted with her own drunken thoughts, Sarah grabbed the older Agent and began to kiss her. Instead of grabbing the bottle from Elle and immediately ending the kiss like she planned to, Sarah sunk deeper into the kiss, transforming it into a makeout session – and causing Elle to drop the bottle on the linoleum floor. The sound of the glass breaking knocked both Sarah and Elle back into reality, and they broke apart.

"Fuck." Sarah muttered, hurrying out of the kitchen and running into her bedroom. She shut the door, locked it, and then laid back on her bed. As she stared at the ceiling, the combination of fear and a decent amount of alcohol gathered in her chest, making her want to vomit. "I'm so fuckin' screwed."

**Secret: This is the second version of the chapter. Version one was **_**significantly **_**different.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the terribly long delay. I've been very busy with college and other stuff that I just haven't had the time to update. Hopefully this chapter makes up for some of that.**

**P.S. This chapter is rated M for some bad language and mild sexual situations.  
**

Sarah woke up the next morning, still clothed in what she wore the day before. '_I must have passed out after all that alcohol._' She attempted to fully open her eyes, but had to snap them shut after the hangover-induced light sensitivity kicked in. Trying once again to open them, she then looked at the blue digital numbers of the alarm clock on her nightstand. "One fuckin' thirty." She said to herself angered that she allowed herself to sleep so late. She always prided herself on being able to wake up early in the morning, whether she liked it or not. Soon thereafter she changed into an Army t-shirt and jeans, threw her hair back into a loose bun and sauntered into the kitchen to find Elle sitting at the table sipping casually from a Starbucks cup full of coffee.

The elder Agent gestured to a waterbottle sitting on the counter next to a bottle of ibuprofen. "I think you should take that."

Sarah didn't say a word as she untwisted the caps of the water and the painkillers, the latter of which she took two of before placing it back into the medicine cabinet. She then grabbed a package of Triscuits out of the cabinet before taking the crackers and the beverage back into her bedroom and shutting the door behind herself. She managed to eat a few crackers before the door opened, looking up she noticed that she has received a rather unwanted visitor.

Elle grabbed the desk chair and placed it next to the bed where the younger Agent lounged. "You obviously remember what happened last night."

"Why the hell does it matter?" Sarah asked, placing the crackers onto the nightstand.

Elle sighed. "Because it happened, that's why the hell it matters! We work together damn it, I want to know if I have to call Hotch and tell him the gig is off."

"I'm fine." Sarah spat back smartly. "Shouldn't I be asking you this? You dropped the fuckin' bottle."

"And you booked it out of the room and locked yourself away!" Elle argued, raising her voice just loud enough to grab the stubborn Sarah's attention.

"I didn't want it to happen again! That's why I ran!" Sarah exclaimed, her voice cracking in fear.

Elle placed a hand on her colleague's shoulder after sensing that this was obviously a difficult subject for her to be discussing. However, her kind gesture was immediately brushed off.

"No, don't touch me. Just don't touch me." Sarah responded, her fear creeping into her body along with her voice.

Elle got up out of the chair and sat next to the younger Agent, placing another hand on her shoulder and catching Sarah's hand before she could be brushed off again. "No. Tell me what's wrong. I need to know."

Sarah took a deep breath.

"Does this have to do with that conversation with Garcia the other day? When you hitched when she said she looked into your file?"

"You know how I was in D.C. right before I transferred to the BAU?" Sarah asked, composing herself a bit better.

Elle nodded. "But you were in New York's VCU before that."

"I was kicked out. Transferred to D.C. because of something I was caught doing. It wasn't bad. Hell, nobody even knew about it until my damn supervisor walked in on us one day! Then she fuckin' sold me out, said I sexually harassed her because she didn't want to be disciplined." Sarah then started to break again, her voice changing and her eyes tearing up with a mixture of hatred, anger, fear and sadness. "She called me when she found out I was transferred to the probationary appointment, tried to take it all back."

Elle wasn't known for being a softy. She had built her reputation upon her being tough, confident, and somewhat of a wise ass. She wasn't a stone cold bitch though; she had empathy and moments where she simply broke down just like any normal person. So was Sarah, she could come off sometimes as egotistical – more noticeable within her comfort zone, she was witty, intellectual and self-secure. She didn't just break down for no good reason. Elle could sense that, so she did the first thing that came to mind when Sarah began to break.

Elle didn't leave time for argument and embraced Sarah in a hug, allowing her to have a shoulder to cry on. "Shh." She said softly as she rubbed the younger woman's back. "It's alright. It's not going to happen again."

Sarah's crying soon subsided, as did the hug as she looked into Elle's dark eyes. She laughed a bit. "You must think I'm nuts."

"No. I really don't." Elle commented. "I would kick her ass if I knew her." She paused. "_Do_ I know her?"

"Hadley Casey?" Sarah responded with another small laugh.

"Nope. I'll still kick her ass though." Elle offered with a smile. "Listen though, about last night…" She grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and began to wipe some of Sarah's tears off her face, dropping it as she slowly got closer to Sarah's lips. "I'm fine with it if you're fine with it." She added, gingerly kissing her colleague.

Sarah noticed the softness in Elle's features, and her heart skipped a beat as the older woman gently brushed her fingers across her face – ridding it of the tears. She knew what was coming, she wanted to question it but she knew she couldn't. As Elle leaned in to kiss her and their lips met for the second time, despite her immediate previous fear of being admonished, she didn't think twice. It felt different, Elle made her feel at ease. She knew, somehow, that regardless of what happened that everything would be alright. She let her heart take over as she deepened the kiss and laid Elle back on the bed.


End file.
